Overwatch, Fortnite and Ninja won big at the Esports Awards 2018

The 2018 installment of the Esports Awards took place in London on Monday, November 12, featuring names and personalities from every corner of the industry. The aim of the Esports Awards is to ‘acknowledge and reward the outstanding achievement throughout the industry’ and previous winners in their respective fields include Dr DisRespect, Thorin and OpTic Gaming.

Two games stood out this year: Blizzard Entertainment’s first-person shooter Overwatch, and Epic Games’ battle royale sensation Fortnite. Overwatch League celebrated an incredibly successful inaugural season in 2018, with the OWL Finals drawing in 10,8 million viewers globally across two days. The OWL playoffs also marked the first time an esports tournament aired live on ESPN in prime time. And that successful season scored the game several big wins and nominations across the board at the Esports Awards 2018. Overwatch won the Esports Live Event of the Year for the OWL Grand Finals and Esports Game of the Year. Blizzard Entertainment also won Esports Publisher of the Year for Overwatch. Overwatch’s star players like JJoNak and Profit were also nominated for Esports PC Player of the Year.

Epic Games was also recognized for Fortnite’s sudden explosion onto the esports scene. While the company is still working on its official esports tournaments for the game, fans around the world have been hosting dozens of competitions already. Fortnite won the Esports Breakthrough Game of the Year award. Its rival battle royale game, PUBG, won the same award last year.

Fortnite’s most famous streamer, Ninja, also received acclaim for his influence in the game, winning Esports Personality of the Year and Streamer of the Year. At the event, Senior Game Designer Brian Lawson explained that the game’s success comes from Fortnite’s ability to appeal to all types of gamers.